NEW YORK - The American Petroleum Institute (API) has sued the U.S. environmental regulator over its plan for biofuels use, the group said on Thursday, on the heels of a similar lawsuit from another oil association.

API is challenging the Environmental Protection Agency's failure to meet deadlines for the 2014 and 2017 biomass-based diesel standards and for mandating more cellulosic ethanol in 2016 than exists, a spokesman for the group said in a statement.

The group is seeking review by a U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., according to a document filed on Thursday.